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Army Of Darkness Video Shots & DVD Releases

Dave Beamish has put his social life aside, and taken an in-depth look at the many DVD releases of the cult film Army of Darkness....

Introduction
Alright you primitive screwheads, listen up ... as some of you know, Army Of Darkness mainly comes in two flavours: the 82-min Theatrical (Universal) Cut and 96-min Director's (International) Cut. The former has been readily available on VHS, LD and DVD from the original distributors at Universal. However fans cried out for someone ... anyone ... to dig up the long-lost Director's Cut, since the only version available at this time was the OOP Japanese Laserdisc entitled Captain Supermarket. There were many different video releases of this movie which have presented some of the extra footage in question, but none of these versions ever housed the Director's Cut in its entirety the way the director intended.Anchor Bay answered the call (sort of) by delivering their ‘Limited Edition’ 2-disc DVD set with the Theatrical Cut in a brand new THX-approved transfer and the Director's Cut in a not-so-viewable transfer. Initially, only the THX'd Theatrical Cut was released separately and there were no similar plans for the Director's Cut at this time. Eventually though, these same two discs have been repackaged and reissued a number of times over. But to make matters worse, the less-than-acceptable presentation of the Director's Cut was never improved upon with each re-release - it was always the same encoding from the original 2-disc edition whereby the image and audio were located from mediocre VHS sources—a valiant effort, but not good enough really. MGM finally sorted out an amicable distribution deal with Universal to re-master the original film-stock and sound mix sources to release the Director's Cut in the way it was meant to be seen and heard. The only other DVD title that probably exceeds this level of reissue complexity is the original Evil Dead movie. What follows is a brief but descriptive rundown of the DVDs released so far and a series of screenshot comparisons for your own examination. There's also an ultimate DVD-Buyer's Guide for this movie at the end of this weblink ... it should help to avoid the headaches that all previous buyers have had to endure when choosing which DVDs will end up in their Deadite Movie Memorabilia. DVDs released This listing is by no means complete, but it gives you a pretty good idea of what's around :-

Ultimate DVD-Buyer's GuideIf you'd like to acquire both cuts of this movie and have as much supplemental material as possible ... buy the R1 Anchor Bay (THX'd) Theatrical Cut and R3 MGM Director's Cut DVDs. With this powerful combination, you get the groovy "The Men Behind The Army" documentary from the Anchor Bay R1 disc and possess the awesomely looking & sounding Director's Cut from the MGM R3 disc (with subtitles finally). All you would miss out on is the director's storyboards that run alongside the R1 Director's Cut from Anchor Bay, but this should be no great loss. Word has just come through that MGM will release their re-mastered transfer of the Director's Cut in R2 UK, so now British and Aussie fans can finally watch this long-awaited version in their preferred PAL TV format. And Anchor Bay have decided to bring out a four-disc box set of all three Evil Dead movies for R1 which will contain exclusive never-seen-before extras on the fourth disc—details to follow. As for the first two movies in this Trilogy ... Elite once produced my personal favourite incarnations of these flicks with the Special Collector's Edition DVD of Evil Dead and the very rare blood-red Laserdisc of Evil Dead II (both now OOP). Anchor Bay also came out with their own editions, but the authentically replicated "Necronomicon: Book of the Dead" (THX'd) DVD of Evil Dead crops the original 4:3 image into a 16:9 widescreen presentation, and the Special Edition (THX'd) DVD of Evil Dead II houses a remixed 5.1 soundtrack which I feel is inferior to the fuller-sounding mono one on the Elite Laserdisc. The Evil Dead Trilogy has had the most chequered history of all video releases, so it's with great relief that we may get to see the end of all this distribution malarky and finally put the Deadites to rest.

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I'm afraid you are way off the mark with your comment no.2, that Rowlf (note correct spelling!) was based on Rick Wakeman. He was actually based on Tom Waits, as the pork pie hat and gruff voice clearly demonstrate.

I'm afraid you are way off the mark with your comment no.2, that Rowlf (note correct spelling!) was based on Rick Wakeman. He was actually based on Tom Waits, as the pork pie hat and gruff voice clearly demonstrate.

I'm afraid you are way off the mark with your comment no.2, that Rowlf (note correct spelling!) was based on Rick Wakeman. He was actually based on Tom Waits, as the pork pie hat and gruff voice clearly demonstrate.

Just to keep you fans happy I've bought the R4 of Army Of Darkness and, in terms of comparing the image between this and the R3 MGM version, I'd say it's a photo-finish. However, this is the all-too-familiar "Aussie Cut" that has been available on VHS here in Australia since its first release so there is nothing new to watch for here.

Weirdly though, everything about the packaging on the R4 edition is exactly the same right as the R3 MGM version right down to the logo - the only differences of course are the contents (main feature, four deleted scenes and five language soundtracks) with the only indication that Fox has released this little beast is the inclusion of their website (neatly hidden away within all the other text on the back).

I will do a review of the R4 edition some time soon, but I'd strongly suggest that if you are willing to part with Aus$20 for this movie then you should just consider forking out an extra Aus$10 and import the R3 MGM edition instead - this will net you the audio commentary for the movie and deleted scenes as well as giving you the Director's Cut to boot.

Having re-watched the Aussie Cut again makes me realise how stilted some of the sequences are, especially the Mini-Ashes in the Windmill section. Still, the way I see it, any version of Army Of Darkness is better than none - heck, this will make it four versions of AoD that I own on DVD now!

How does the R4 release of Army of Darkness compare? I'm sure it has the same cover as the MGM release, but without the band on the top RHS corner. It appeared to have 5.1 but the only extras listed were deleted scenes 4x3.

Any advise appreciated as I've been waiting for a local release to add this great film to my collection, and now it looks as though I'll have to get it from abroad after all.

will the Region 2 4 disc box set edition be available here in australia? as far as i can ascertain any UK releases dont automatically land on our chores.

Further... what is better to buy? i mean i commend all the reviews and comparisons but now this nice looking UK box set has confused the hell out of me. Especially when it comes to AOD, which is better? should i spend $100.00 plus AUS on that "definite" box set? i mean that "fourth disc" sounds mighty good to me.

Sorry I've taken so long to respond but I don't often check back on every little thing that I've written in this website.

Anyway, I am going out on a limb to say that the Director's Bootleg DVD is exactly the same transfer as what has been used 4-5 times over before by Anchor Bay. I haven't got the disc itself, I just don't believe that the quality would have been dramatically improved upon from the original releases - in fact, the best hope that I've ever heard for any improvement gleaned on the Bootleg Edition was from one reviewer who said that it had a "slightly better transfer than before", but honestly this doesn't count for anything in my book.

I just read up on David B's review of the R2 ED Trilogy 4-disc set and it looks as though nothing has really changed in terms of quality for any of the three movies and by all accounts it stands to reason that Anchor Bay simply has missed the boat and that MGM is the new captain of the ship called AoD D.C.

Anyway, I hope this answers your question. In a nutshell, don't expect Anchor Bay to improve upon their existing distribution deal struck for Army Of Darkness (both their THX'd Theatrical Cut and the awful-looking Director's Cut transfers) as I think that MGM at least has the Director's Cut version licked for now. No offence to Anchor Bay for their admirable efforts at the beginning of this saga, but I'm afraid that they've been flogging a dead horse for too long and the old nag just ain't gonna get up no more.